Optical communication networks are often used to transport large amounts of data over long distances very quickly. At present, sophisticated optical communication networks are capable of transmitting tens of trillions of bits of information per second over a single optical fiber spanning many hundreds of kilometers. Optical communication networks generally exceed the bandwidth capabilities of copper networks. As a result, optical networks are often part of wireline telecommunication networks and are often used to provide optical backbones at the cores of the telecommunication networks.